Civic issues platforms on online social networks

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a post corresponding to a civic issue on a civic-issues platform of an online social network associated with a first municipality from a client system of a first user of the online social network, where the first user is connected to the first municipality within the online social network, determining a classification of the post based on a comparison of the post with one or more classification-keywords stored in a public-agency database, assigning the post to a first agency of the first municipality based on the determined classification of the post and a location associated with the civic issue, receiving a request to update the post on the civic-issues platform, the request describing a current status of the civic issue, and updating the post on the civic-issues platform to indicate the current status of the civic issue.

PRIORITY

This application is a continuation under 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/716,742, filed 19 May 2015, which isincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to platforms for managing and trackingcivic issues, particularly within the context of online social networks.

BACKGROUND

A social-networking system, which may include a social-networkingwebsite, may enable its users (such as persons or organizations) tointeract with it and with each other through it. The social-networkingsystem may, with input from a user, create and store in thesocial-networking system a user profile associated with the user. Theuser profile may include demographic information, communication-channelinformation, and information on personal interests of the user. Thesocial-networking system may also, with input from a user, create andstore a record of relationships of the user with other users of thesocial-networking system, as well as provide services (e.g. wall posts,photo-sharing, event organization, messaging, games, or advertisements)to facilitate social interaction between or among users.

The social-networking system may send over one or more networks contentor messages related to its services to a mobile or other computingdevice of a user. A user may also install software applications on amobile or other computing device of the user for accessing a userprofile of the user and other data within the social-networking system.The social-networking system may generate a personalized set of contentobjects to display to a user, such as a newsfeed of aggregated storiesof other users connected to the user.

Social-graph analysis views social relationships in terms of networktheory consisting of nodes and edges. Nodes represent the individualusers within the networks, and edges represent the relationships betweenthe users. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex.In its simplest form, a social graph is a map of all of the relevantedges between all the nodes being studied.

SUMMARY OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS

In particular embodiments, a social-networking system may promote civicengagement via an online social network. The social-networking systemmay provide a civic-issues platform for users to engage in civic issuesin their communities. As an example, a civic issue may be fixing apothole on a junction of Mission Street and 5th Street in San Francisco.As another example, a civic issue may be associated with improving adesign of an electoral voting machine. The users of the civic-issuesplatform may include users of the online social network or third-partyusers who are not associated with the online social network.Furthermore, the civic-issues platform may connect to a public-agencysystem associated with an agency of a municipality, such as SanFrancisco Public Works for the city of San Francisco, to allow thegeneral public to post new civic issues and track resolution of theposted civic issues. In particular embodiments, the civic-issuesplatform may be utilized to galvanize public support for resolving theposted civic issues. Accordingly, the civic-issues platform may enableand encourage particular users of the communities and agenciesresponsible for resolving the posted civic issues to mutually engage inresolving the posted civic issues.

In particular embodiments, the civic-issues platform may measureperformances of agencies for resolving civic issues. For example, thecivic-issues platform may measure a performance of a particular agencybased on how users of the online social network respond towardresolutions of posted civic issues by the particular agency. Inparticular embodiments, the civic-issues platform may calculateperformance scores to a pre-determined cluster of agencies for resolvingcivic issues, aggregate the calculated performance scores to determine athreshold performance score, and rank the performance of each agency ofthe pre-determined cluster of agencies based on the determined thresholdperformance score. Accordingly, the civic-issues platform may rank theparticular agency against other agencies within the municipality of theparticular agency. The civic-issues platform may even rank theparticular agency against other agencies in the world.

In particular embodiments, the civic-issues platform may providemonetary incentives for agencies to continuously engage users in civicengagements. For example, the social-networking system may identify oneor more user-clusters for targeted advertising on the online socialnetwork to be associated with a user of the civic-issues platform basedat least on previous interactions of the user with the civic-issuesplatform. Furthermore, the social-networking system may share theadvertising revenue generated from the targeted advertising with theagencies. Such sharing of the advertising revenue may even provideincentives for users to generate revenue for their communities byengaging in civic issues that affect them.

The embodiments disclosed above are only examples, and the scope of thisdisclosure is not limited to them. Particular embodiments may includeall, some, or none of the components, elements, features, functions,operations, or steps of the embodiments disclosed above. Embodimentsaccording to the invention are in particular disclosed in the attachedclaims directed to a method, a storage medium, a system and a computerprogram product, wherein any feature mentioned in one claim category,e.g. method, can be claimed in another claim category, e.g. system, aswell. The dependencies or references back in the attached claims arechosen for formal reasons only. However any subject matter resultingfrom a deliberate reference back to any previous claims (in particularmultiple dependencies) can be claimed as well, so that any combinationof claims and the features thereof are disclosed and can be claimedregardless of the dependencies chosen in the attached claims. Thesubject-matter which can be claimed comprises not only the combinationsof features as set out in the attached claims but also any othercombination of features in the claims, wherein each feature mentioned inthe claims can be combined with any other feature or combination ofother features in the claims. Furthermore, any of the embodiments andfeatures described or depicted herein can be claimed in a separate claimand/or in any combination with any embodiment or feature described ordepicted herein or with any of the features of the attached claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment associated with asocial-networking system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example social graph.

FIG. 3 illustrates the network environment of FIG. 1 associated with acivic-issues platform.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example webpage of the social-networking systemassociated with the civic-issues platform for an example municipality.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method of civic engagement associated withthe civic-issues platform.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example computer system.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS System Overview

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 associated with asocial-networking system. Network environment 100 includes a clientsystem 130, a social-networking system 160, and a third-party system 170connected to each other by a network 110. Although FIG. 1 illustrates aparticular arrangement of client system 130, social-networking system160, third-party system 170, and network 110, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable arrangement of client system 130,social-networking system 160, third-party system 170, and network 110.As an example and not by way of limitation, two or more of client system130, social-networking system 160, and third-party system 170 may beconnected to each other directly, bypassing network 110. As anotherexample, two or more of client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 may be physically or logically co-locatedwith each other in whole or in part. Moreover, although FIG. 1illustrates a particular number of client systems 130, social-networkingsystems 160, third-party systems 170, and networks 110, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable number of client systems 130,social-networking systems 160, third-party systems 170, and networks110. As an example and not by way of limitation, network environment 100may include multiple client system 130, social-networking systems 160,third-party systems 170, and networks 110.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable network 110. As an example andnot by way of limitation, one or more portions of network 110 mayinclude an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network(MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN), a cellular telephone network, or a combinationof two or more of these. Network 110 may include one or more networks110.

Links 150 may connect client system 130, social-networking system 160,and third-party system 170 to communication network 110 or to eachother. This disclosure contemplates any suitable links 150. Inparticular embodiments, one or more links 150 include one or morewireline (such as for example Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or Data OverCable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)), wireless (such as forexample Wi-Fi or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX)), or optical (such as for example Synchronous Optical Network(SONET) or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)) links. In particularembodiments, one or more links 150 each include an ad hoc network, anintranet, an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a WWAN, a MAN, aportion of the Internet, a portion of the PSTN, a cellulartechnology-based network, a satellite communications technology-basednetwork, another link 150, or a combination of two or more such links150. Links 150 need not necessarily be the same throughout networkenvironment 100. One or more first links 150 may differ in one or morerespects from one or more second links 150.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may be an electronic deviceincluding hardware, software, or embedded logic components or acombination of two or more such components and capable of carrying outthe appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by clientsystem 130. As an example and not by way of limitation, a client system130 may include a computer system such as a desktop computer, notebookor laptop computer, netbook, a tablet computer, e-book reader, GPSdevice, camera, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld electronicdevice, cellular telephone, smartphone, augmented/virtual realitydevice, other suitable electronic device, or any suitable combinationthereof. This disclosure contemplates any suitable client systems 130. Aclient system 130 may enable a network user at client system 130 toaccess network 110. A client system 130 may enable its user tocommunicate with other users at other client systems 130.

In particular embodiments, client system 130 may include a web browser132, and may have one or more add-ons, plug-ins, or other extensions. Auser at client system 130 may enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) orother address directing the web browser 132 to a particular server (suchas server 162, or a server associated with a third-party system 170),and the web browser 132 may generate a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol(HTTP) request and communicate the HTTP request to server. The servermay accept the HTTP request and communicate to client system 130 one ormore Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) files responsive to the HTTPrequest. Client system 130 may render a webpage based on the HTML filesfrom the server for presentation to the user. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable webpage files. As an example and not by way oflimitation, webpages may render from HTML files, Extensible Hyper TextMarkup Language (XHTML) files, or Extensible Markup Language (XML)files, according to particular needs. Such pages may also executescripts, combinations of markup language and scripts, and the like.Herein, reference to a webpage encompasses one or more correspondingwebpage files (which a browser may use to render the webpage) and viceversa, where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be anetwork-addressable computing system that can host an online socialnetwork. Social-networking system 160 may generate, store, receive, andsend social-networking data, such as, for example, user-profile data,concept-profile data, social-graph information, or other suitable datarelated to the online social network. Social-networking system 160 maybe accessed by the other components of network environment 100 eitherdirectly or via network 110. As an example and not by way of limitation,client system 130 may access social-networking system 160 using a webbrowser 132, or a native application associated with social-networkingsystem 160 (e.g., a mobile social-networking application, a messagingapplication, another suitable application, or any combination thereof)either directly or via network 110. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more servers 162. Eachserver 162 may be a unitary server or a distributed server spanningmultiple computers or multiple datacenters. Servers 162 may be ofvarious types, such as, for example and without limitation, web server,news server, mail server, message server, advertising server, fileserver, application server, exchange server, database server, proxyserver, another server suitable for performing functions or processesdescribed herein, or any combination thereof. In particular embodiments,each server 162 may include hardware, software, or embedded logiccomponents or a combination of two or more such components for carryingout the appropriate functionalities implemented or supported by server162. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may includeone or more data stores 164. Data stores 164 may be used to storevarious types of information. In particular embodiments, the informationstored in data stores 164 may be organized according to specific datastructures. In particular embodiments, each data store 164 may be arelational, columnar, correlation, or other suitable database. Althoughthis disclosure describes or illustrates particular types of databases,this disclosure contemplates any suitable types of databases. Particularembodiments may provide interfaces that enable a client system 130, asocial-networking system 160, or a third-party system 170 to manage,retrieve, modify, add, or delete, the information stored in data store164.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may store one ormore social graphs in one or more data stores 164. In particularembodiments, a social graph may include multiple nodes—which may includemultiple user nodes (each corresponding to a particular user) ormultiple concept nodes (each corresponding to a particular concept)—andmultiple edges connecting the nodes. Social-networking system 160 mayprovide users of the online social network the ability to communicateand interact with other users. In particular embodiments, users may jointhe online social network via social-networking system 160 and then addconnections (e.g., relationships) to a number of other users ofsocial-networking system 160 whom they want to be connected to. Herein,the term “friend” may refer to any other user of social-networkingsystem 160 with whom a user has formed a connection, association, orrelationship via social-networking system 160.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may provideusers with the ability to take actions on various types of items orobjects, supported by social-networking system 160. As an example andnot by way of limitation, the items and objects may include groups orsocial networks to which users of social-networking system 160 maybelong, events or calendar entries in which a user might be interested,computer-based applications that a user may use, transactions that allowusers to buy or sell items via the service, interactions withadvertisements that a user may perform, or other suitable items orobjects. A user may interact with anything that is capable of beingrepresented in social-networking system 160 or by an external system ofthird-party system 170, which is separate from social-networking system160 and coupled to social-networking system 160 via a network 110.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may be capableof linking a variety of entities. As an example and not by way oflimitation, social-networking system 160 may enable users to interactwith each other as well as receive content from third-party systems 170or other entities, or to allow users to interact with these entitiesthrough an application programming interfaces (API) or othercommunication channels.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 170 may include one ormore types of servers, one or more data stores, one or more interfaces,including but not limited to APIs, one or more web services, one or morecontent sources, one or more networks, or any other suitable components,e.g., that servers may communicate with. A third-party system 170 may beoperated by a different entity from an entity operatingsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, however,social-networking system 160 and third-party systems 170 may operate inconjunction with each other to provide social-networking services tousers of social-networking system 160 or third-party systems 170. Inthis sense, social-networking system 160 may provide a platform, orbackbone, which other systems, such as third-party systems 170, may useto provide social-networking services and functionality to users acrossthe Internet.

In particular embodiments, a third-party system 170 may include athird-party content object provider. A third-party content objectprovider may include one or more sources of content objects, which maybe communicated to a client system 130. As an example and not by way oflimitation, content objects may include information regarding things oractivities of interest to the user, such as, for example, movie showtimes, movie reviews, restaurant reviews, restaurant menus, productinformation and reviews, or other suitable information. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, content objects may includeincentive content objects, such as coupons, discount tickets, giftcertificates, or other suitable incentive objects.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 also includesuser-generated content objects, which may enhance a user's interactionswith social-networking system 160. User-generated content may includeanything a user can add, upload, send, or “post” to social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, a usercommunicates posts to social-networking system 160 from a client system130. Posts may include data such as status updates or other textualdata, location information, photos, videos, links, music or othersimilar data or media. Content may also be added to social-networkingsystem 160 by a third-party through a “communication channel,” such as anewsfeed or stream.

particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may include avariety of servers, sub-systems, programs, modules, logs, and datastores. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 mayinclude one or more of the following: a web server, action logger,API-request server, relevance-and-ranking engine, content-objectclassifier, notification controller, action log,third-party-content-object-exposure log, inference module,authorization/privacy server, search module, advertisement-targetingmodule, user-interface module, user-profile store, connection store,third-party content store, or location store. Social-networking system160 may also include suitable components such as network interfaces,security mechanisms, load balancers, failover servers,management-and-network-operations consoles, other suitable components,or any suitable combination thereof. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may include one or more user-profile storesfor storing user profiles. A user profile may include, for example,biographic information, demographic information, behavioral information,social information, or other types of descriptive information, such aswork experience, educational history, hobbies or preferences, interests,affinities, or location. Interest information may include interestsrelated to one or more categories. Categories may be general orspecific. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a user “likes”an article about a brand of shoes the category may be the brand, or thegeneral category of “shoes” or “clothing.” A connection store may beused for storing connection information about users. The connectioninformation may indicate users who have similar or common workexperience, group memberships, hobbies, educational history, or are inany way related or share common attributes. The connection informationmay also include user-defined connections between different users andcontent (both internal and external). A web server may be used forlinking social-networking system 160 to one or more client systems 130or one or more third-party system 170 via network 110. The web servermay include a mail server or other messaging functionality for receivingand routing messages between social-networking system 160 and one ormore client systems 130. An API-request server may allow a third-partysystem 170 to access information from social-networking system 160 bycalling one or more APIs. An action logger may be used to receivecommunications from a web server about a user's actions on or offsocial-networking system 160. In conjunction with the action log, athird-party-content-object log may be maintained of user exposures tothird-party-content objects. A notification controller may provideinformation regarding content objects to a client system 130.Information may be pushed to a client system 130 as notifications, orinformation may be pulled from client system 130 responsive to a requestreceived from client system 130. Authorization servers may be used toenforce one or more privacy settings of the users of social-networkingsystem 160. A privacy setting of a user determines how particularinformation associated with a user can be shared. The authorizationserver may allow users to opt in to or opt out of having their actionslogged by social-networking system 160 or shared with other systems(e.g., third-party system 170), such as, for example, by settingappropriate privacy settings. Third-party-content-object stores may beused to store content objects received from third parties, such as athird-party system 170. Location stores may be used for storing locationinformation received from client systems 130 associated with users.Advertisement-pricing modules may combine social information, thecurrent time, location information, or other suitable information toprovide relevant advertisements, in the form of notifications, to auser.

Social Graphs

FIG. 2 illustrates example social graph 200. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store one or more social graphs 200 inone or more data stores. In particular embodiments, social graph 200 mayinclude multiple nodes—which may include multiple user nodes 202 ormultiple concept nodes 204—and multiple edges 206 connecting the nodes.Example social graph 200 illustrated in FIG. 2 is shown, for didacticpurposes, in a two-dimensional visual map representation. In particularembodiments, a social-networking system 160, client system 130, orthird-party system 170 may access social graph 200 and relatedsocial-graph information for suitable applications. The nodes and edgesof social graph 200 may be stored as data objects, for example, in adata store (such as a social-graph database). Such a data store mayinclude one or more searchable or queryable indexes of nodes or edges ofsocial graph 200.

In particular embodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to a user ofsocial-networking system 160. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user may be an individual (human user), an entity (e.g.,an enterprise, business, or third-party application), or a group (e.g.,of individuals or entities) that interacts or communicates with or oversocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, when a userregisters for an account with social-networking system 160,social-networking system 160 may create a user node 202 corresponding tothe user, and store the user node 202 in one or more data stores. Usersand user nodes 202 described herein may, where appropriate, refer toregistered users and user nodes 202 associated with registered users. Inaddition or as an alternative, users and user nodes 202 described hereinmay, where appropriate, refer to users that have not registered withsocial-networking system 160. In particular embodiments, a user node 202may be associated with information provided by a user or informationgathered by various systems, including social-networking system 160. Asan example and not by way of limitation, a user may provide his or hername, profile picture, contact information, birth date, sex, maritalstatus, family status, employment, education background, preferences,interests, or other demographic information. In particular embodiments,a user node 202 may be associated with one or more data objectscorresponding to information associated with a user. In particularembodiments, a user node 202 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may correspond to aconcept. As an example and not by way of limitation, a concept maycorrespond to a place (such as, for example, a movie theater,restaurant, landmark, or city); a website (such as, for example, awebsite associated with social-network system 160 or a third-partywebsite associated with a web-application server); an entity (such as,for example, a person, business, group, sports team, or celebrity); aresource (such as, for example, an audio file, video file, digitalphoto, text file, structured document, or application) which may belocated within social-networking system 160 or on an external server,such as a web-application server; real or intellectual property (suchas, for example, a sculpture, painting, movie, game, song, idea,photograph, or written work); a game; an activity; an idea or theory; anobject in a augmented/virtual reality environment; another suitableconcept; or two or more such concepts. A concept node 204 may beassociated with information of a concept provided by a user orinformation gathered by various systems, including social-networkingsystem 160. As an example and not by way of limitation, information of aconcept may include a name or a title; one or more images (e.g., animage of the cover page of a book); a location (e.g., an address or ageographical location); a website (which may be associated with a URL);contact information (e.g., a phone number or an email address); othersuitable concept information; or any suitable combination of suchinformation. In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may beassociated with one or more data objects corresponding to informationassociated with concept node 204. In particular embodiments, a conceptnode 204 may correspond to one or more webpages.

In particular embodiments, a node in social graph 200 may represent orbe represented by a webpage (which may be referred to as a “profilepage”). Profile pages may be hosted by or accessible tosocial-networking system 160. Profile pages may also be hosted onthird-party websites associated with a third-party server 170. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a profile page corresponding to aparticular external webpage may be the particular external webpage andthe profile page may correspond to a particular concept node 204.Profile pages may be viewable by all or a selected subset of otherusers. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user node 202 mayhave a corresponding user-profile page in which the corresponding usermay add content, make declarations, or otherwise express himself orherself. As another example and not by way of limitation, a concept node204 may have a corresponding concept-profile page in which one or moreusers may add content, make declarations, or express themselves,particularly in relation to the concept corresponding to concept node204.

In particular embodiments, a concept node 204 may represent athird-party webpage or resource hosted by a third-party system 170. Thethird-party webpage or resource may include, among other elements,content, a selectable or other icon, or other inter-actable objectrepresenting an action or activity. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a third-party webpage may include a selectable icon such as“like,” “check-in,” “eat,” “recommend,” or another suitable action oractivity. A user viewing the third-party webpage may perform an actionby selecting one of the icons (e.g., “check-in”), causing a clientsystem 130 to send to social-networking system 160 a message indicatingthe user's action. In response to the message, social-networking system160 may create an edge (e.g., a check-in-type edge) between a user node202 corresponding to the user and a concept node 204 corresponding tothe third-party webpage or resource and store edge 206 in one or moredata stores.

In particular embodiments, a pair of nodes in social graph 200 may beconnected to each other by one or more edges 206. An edge 206 connectinga pair of nodes may represent a relationship between the pair of nodes.In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may include or represent one ormore data objects or attributes corresponding to the relationshipbetween a pair of nodes. As an example and not by way of limitation, afirst user may indicate that a second user is a “friend” of the firstuser. In response to this indication, social-networking system 160 maysend a “friend request” to the second user. If the second user confirmsthe “friend request,” social-networking system 160 may create an edge206 connecting the first user's user node 202 to the second user's usernode 202 in social graph 200 and store edge 206 as social-graphinformation in one or more of data stores 164. In the example of FIG. 2,social graph 200 includes an edge 206 indicating a friend relationbetween user nodes 202 of user “A” and user “B” and an edge indicating afriend relation between user nodes 202 of user “C” and user “B.”Although this disclosure describes or illustrates particular edges 206with particular attributes connecting particular user nodes 202, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206 with any suitableattributes connecting user nodes 202. As an example and not by way oflimitation, an edge 206 may represent a friendship, family relationship,business or employment relationship, fan relationship (including, e.g.,liking, etc.), follower relationship, visitor relationship (including,e.g., accessing, viewing, checking-in, sharing, etc.), subscriberrelationship, superior/subordinate relationship, reciprocalrelationship, non-reciprocal relationship, another suitable type ofrelationship, or two or more such relationships. Moreover, although thisdisclosure generally describes nodes as being connected, this disclosurealso describes users or concepts as being connected. Herein, referencesto users or concepts being connected may, where appropriate, refer tothe nodes corresponding to those users or concepts being connected insocial graph 200 by one or more edges 206.

In particular embodiments, an edge 206 between a user node 202 and aconcept node 204 may represent a particular action or activity performedby a user associated with user node 202 toward a concept associated witha concept node 204. As an example and not by way of limitation, asillustrated in FIG. 2, a user may “like,” “attended,” “played,”“listened,” “cooked,” “worked at,” or “watched” a concept, each of whichmay correspond to an edge type or subtype. A concept-profile pagecorresponding to a concept node 204 may include, for example, aselectable “check in” icon (such as, for example, a clickable “check in”icon) or a selectable “add to favorites” icon. Similarly, after a userclicks these icons, social-networking system 160 may create a “favorite”edge or a “check in” edge in response to a user's action correspondingto a respective action. As another example and not by way of limitation,a user (user “C”) may listen to a particular song (“Imagine”) using aparticular application (third-party online music application). In thiscase, social-networking system 160 may create a “listened” edge 206 anda “used” edge (as illustrated in FIG. 2) between user nodes 202corresponding to the user and concept nodes 204 corresponding to thesong and application to indicate that the user listened to the song andused the application. Moreover, social-networking system 160 may createa “played” edge 206 (as illustrated in FIG. 2) between concept nodes 204corresponding to the song and the application to indicate that theparticular song was played by the particular application. In this case,“played” edge 206 corresponds to an action performed by an externalapplication (third-party online music application) on an external audiofile (the song “Imagine”). Although this disclosure describes particularedges 206 with particular attributes connecting user nodes 202 andconcept nodes 204, this disclosure contemplates any suitable edges 206with any suitable attributes connecting user nodes 202 and concept nodes204. Moreover, although this disclosure describes edges between a usernode 202 and a concept node 204 representing a single relationship, thisdisclosure contemplates edges between a user node 202 and a concept node204 representing one or more relationships. As an example and not by wayof limitation, an edge 206 may represent both that a user likes and hasused at a particular concept. Alternatively, another edge 206 mayrepresent each type of relationship (or multiples of a singlerelationship) between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 (asillustrated in FIG. 2 between user node 202 for user “E” and conceptnode 204 for “a third-party online music application”).

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may create anedge 206 between a user node 202 and a concept node 204 in social graph200. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user viewing aconcept-profile page (such as, for example, by using a web browser or aspecial-purpose application hosted by the user's client system 130) mayindicate that he or she likes the concept represented by the conceptnode 204 by clicking or selecting a “Like” icon, which may cause theuser's client system 130 to send to social-networking system 160 amessage indicating the user's liking of the concept associated with theconcept-profile page. In response to the message, social-networkingsystem 160 may create an edge 206 between user node 202 associated withthe user and concept node 204, as illustrated by “like” edge 206 betweenthe user and concept node 204. In particular embodiments,social-networking system 160 may store an edge 206 in one or more datastores. In particular embodiments, an edge 206 may be automaticallyformed by social-networking system 160 in response to a particular useraction. As an example and not by way of limitation, if a first useruploads a picture, watches a movie, or listens to a song, an edge 206may be formed between user node 202 corresponding to the first user andconcept nodes 204 corresponding to those concepts. Although thisdisclosure describes forming particular edges 206 in particular manners,this disclosure contemplates forming any suitable edges 206 in anysuitable manner.

Civic-Issues Platforms

In particular embodiments, a user's desire to share content on an onlinesocial network may be triggered by events associated with the communitywhich the user lives in. As an example and not by way of limitation, anevent may be associated with a governmental issue in the community,volunteering in the community, an election of a public administrationperson for the community, managing a resource of the community, or othercivic issues of interest to the user. The user may post comments onlineto address the events. However, such content being shared online by theuser may have limited visibilities. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a government agency may host a website allowing generalpublic users to share content corresponding to civic issues associatedwith their communities. However, such shared content may be limited totargeted messages, posted petitions, or organized rallies among users ofthe website. Furthermore, the website may not be connected to governmentdatabases. As such, civic issues that are posted by users on the websitemay not be made aware to the actual government administrators who couldresolve them.

In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160 may provide acivic-issues platform for promoting civic engagement via the onlinesocial network, where the civic-issues platform could enable users ofthe online social network to engage civic issues in their communities.Social-networking system 160 may provide users of the civic-issuesplatform with user-interface tools to, for example, create, submit,share, or track content related to civic issues on the online socialnetwork via texts, photos, videos, posts, or any other suitable means.The content may be further commented on, liked, or shared on the onlinesocial network. In particular embodiments, users of the civic-issuesplatform may already be familiar with utilizing social-networking system160 to post particular issues, track particular issues, register supportfor particular issues, or micro-engage particular users via one or moremicro-engagements to galvanize support for particular issues on theonline social network. As such, the users may not require substantialinstructions to utilize the civic-issues platform. As yet anotherexample and not by way of limitation, social-networking system 160 maymonetize social media activity, such as users' engagements, on thecivic-issues platform by presenting targeted advertisements relevant tothe users of the civic-issues platform on the online social network.Furthermore, social-networking system 160 may share the advertisingrevenue generated from the targeted advertising with the agencies. Suchsharing of the advertising revenue between the social-networking system160 and the agencies may provide incentives for users to generaterevenue for their communities by engaging in civic issues that affectthem. Although this disclosure describes particular embodiments asproviding particular advantages, particular embodiments may providenone, some, or all of these advantages.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example network environment associated withcivic-issues platform 300. In particular embodiments, civic-issuesplatform 300 may include one or more public-agency databases 164A, oneor more issue-tracking databases 164B, one or more social-networkingdatabases 164C, and one or more servers 162. In particular embodiments,social-networking database 164C may store social-networking data, suchas social graph 200, of social-networking system 160 as discussed above.Civic-issues platform 300 may communicate with one or more clientsystems 130 via network 110. Furthermore, the one or more client systems130 may be associated with one or more users 306, respectively.Civic-issues platform 300 may also communicate with one or morepublic-agency systems 170A and one or more advertiser systems 170B vianetwork 110. In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may bea subsystem of social-networking system 160. Although FIG. 3 illustratesa particular arrangement of client systems 130, civic-issues platform300, public-agency system 170A, advertiser system 170B, and network 110,this disclosure contemplates any suitable arrangement of client systems130, civic-issues platform 300, public-agency system 170A, advertisersystem 170B, and network 110. Moreover, although FIG. 1 illustrates aparticular number of client systems 130, civic-issues platforms 300,public-agency systems 170A, advertiser systems 170B, and network 110,this disclosure contemplates any suitable number of client systems 130,civic-issues platforms 300, public-agency systems 170A, advertisersystems 170B, and networks 110.

In particular embodiments, public-agency database 164A may be associatedwith a particular public agency of a municipality. Furthermore,public-agency database 164A may store information associated with one ormore civic issues previously resolved by the public agency. As anexample and not by way of limitation, for each civic issue previouslyresolved by the public agency, public-agency database 160A may storetext describing the civic issue when it was first posted on civic-issuesplatform 300, one or more locations associated with the civic issue, oneor more updates for the resolution of the civic issues posted by thepublic agency, one or more feedbacks from users associated with thecivic issue posted on civic-issues platform 300, a resolution of thecivic issue, other information associated with the civic issue, or anysuitable combination thereof. Although this disclosure illustrates anddescribes storing particular civic issues in a particular manner, thedisclosure contemplates storing any suitable civic issues in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, public-agency database 164A may store one ormore classification-keywords associated with the particular publicagency. Such classification-keywords may be utilized by civic-issuesplatform 300 to determine a classification of a post as discussed below.As an example and not by way of limitation, public-agency database 164Aassociated with the San Francisco Public Works may storeclassification-keywords such as “traffic”, “light”, “graffiti”, “park”,“urban”, “building”, “construction”, “remodeling”, “street”, “sidewalk”,“tree”, “planting”, “sewer”, “pothole”, “curb”, “ramp”, “landscape”, orany other suitable classification-keywords. As another example and notby way of limitation, public-agency database 164A associated with theSan Francisco Police Department may store classification-keywords suchas “graffiti”, “traffic”, “pothole”, “fire”, “safety”, “crime”,“hotline”, “vandalism”, “flood”, “accident”, or any other suitableclassification-keywords. In particular embodiments, one or moreclassification-keywords of public-agency database 164A may correspond totypes of work performed by the public agency. As an example and not byway of limitation, particular classification-keywords of public-agencydatabase 164A associated with the San Francisco Public Workscorresponding to types of work may include “wiring”, “painting”,“remodeling”, “carpentry”, “drywall finishing”, “plumbing”, and “asphaltpatching”. As another example and not by way of limitation, particularclassification-keywords of public-agency database 164A associated withthe San Francisco Police Department corresponding to types of work mayinclude “traffic policing”, “crime investigation”, and “graffitiremoval”. In particular embodiments, one or more classification-keywordsof public-agency database 164A may correspond to scopes of workperformed by the public agency. As an example and not by way oflimitation, particular classification-keywords of public-agency database164A associated with the San Francisco Public Works corresponding toscopes of work may include “building construction”, “building repair”,“electrical, plumbing”, “patch-paving”, and “street mapping”. As anotherexample and not by way of limitation, particular classification-keywordsof public-agency database 164A associated with the San Francisco PoliceDepartment corresponding to scopes of work may include “trafficcontrol”, “crime investigation”, “neighborhood watch”, and “graffitiabatement”. Although this disclosure describes using particularclassification-keywords associated with particular public agencies, thedisclosure contemplates using any suitable classification-keywordsassociated with any suitable public agencies.

In particular embodiments, issue-tracking database 164B may storeinformation associated with posts corresponding to civic issues that arecurrently pending with civic-issues platform 300. As an example and notby way of limitation, for each civic issue that is currently pendingwith civic-issues platform 300, issue-tracking database 164B may storeinformation associated with the civic issue such as, for example, thetext describing the civic issue, the location associated with the civicissues, the user-reported category corresponding to the civic issue, oneor more updates associated with the civic issue posted on civic-issuesplatform 300 by any suitable entity such as the user who posted thecivic-issue, any other user of social-networking system 160, or thepublic agency assigned to resolve the civic issue, one or more tagsassociated with the civic issue, or any suitable combination thereof.Although this disclosure illustrates and describes particularissue-tracking database within civic-issues platform 300 in a particularmanner, the disclosure contemplates any suitable issue-tracking databasewithin any suitable civic-issues platform in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may allow users tocreate posts on the online social network corresponding to particularcivic issues. This may also enable the users to raise awareness ofparticular civic issues in their communities. As an example and not byway of limitation, a civic issue may be associated with repairing apothole, fixing a parking issue, removing a tree, or fixing a localelectoral-voting issue. As another example and not by way of limitation,a user living in a particular municipality, such as a city or a county,may create a post within a page, such as the example webpage illustratedin FIG. 4, of the online social network via civic-issues platform 300 tolog a particular civic issue associated with the municipality. As such,users may leverage the online social network to target particular civicissues associated with their communities. Furthermore, the users mayleverage the online social network to raise attention on particularcivic issues that concern them. In particular embodiments, the usercreating the post on the online social network may be a user ofsocial-networking system 160. Furthermore, civic-issues platform 300 mayauthenticate the user before the user is able to create the post on theonline social network. As an example and not by way of limitation,civic-issues platform 300 may retrieve from social-networking system 160an indication that the user has logged into the online social networkbefore allowing the user to create the post. In particular embodiments,the user may be an unregistered user of social-networking platform 160.In particular embodiments, the user creating the post on the onlinesocial network may be associated with third-party system 170 external tosocial-networking system 160. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user may access third-party system 170, which may accesscivic-issues platform 300 on social-networking system 160 via an APIassociated with social-networking system 160, and present auser-interface for interacting with civic-issues platform 300 viathird-party system 170 to the user. Furthermore, third-party system 170may or may not utilize social-networking system 160 to authenticate theuser. Although this disclosure describes particular users utilizingcivic-issues platform 300 in a particular manner, the disclosurecontemplates any suitable users utilizing any suitable civic-issuesplatform in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, the user may send a request to civic-issuesplatform 300 to create a post on the online social network correspondingto a particular civic issue. The civic issue may be associated with aparticular municipality. In particular embodiments, the user may sendthe request via a client system, such as client system 130, tocivic-issues platform 300. The request may include, for example, textdescribing the civic issue, a location associated with the civic issue,a user-reported category corresponding to the civic issue, multimediacontent (e.g., text, audio, image, animation or video, to illustrate thecivic issue), or other suitable data or content. In particularembodiments, the location of the posted civic issue may be retrievedfrom client system 130 of the user (e.g., a smartphone or other suitabledevice), and the user may utilize client system 130 to create the postat the location of the civic issue. Accordingly, the location of thecivic issue may correspond to the location of client system 130 of theuser, and client system 130 may embed the location of the civic issuewithin the request sent by the user to civic-issues platform 300. Inparticular embodiments, information corresponding to the location of thecivic issue may be retrieved from metadata of an image included with therequest. In particular embodiments, the user may add one or more tags tothe request for enabling civic-issues platform 300 to assign a suitableagency for resolving the civic issue. As an example and not by way oflimitation, the tags may include keywords such as “road”, “tree”,“fence”, “lights”, “park”, “sign”, or any suitable combination thereof.In particular embodiments, the user may select the tags from apre-determined list of tags when creating the post. In particularembodiments, one or more user-reported categories may be assigned toeach of the posted civic issues. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user-reported category may correspond to “hazard”,“problem”, “maintenance”, or “improvement.” In particular embodiments,the user-reported category may be assigned manually. As an example andnot by way of limitation, a user may determine a user-reported categoryfor a civic issue. In particular embodiments, the user-reported categorymay be determined by civic-issues platform 300 based at least on thepost created by the user. As an example and not by way of limitation,civic-issues platform 300 may parse the text of the post to extract oneor more n-grams and automatically determined the user-reported categorybased at least on one or more of the extracted n-grams. Although thisdisclosure describes creating posts corresponding to particular civicissues in a particular manner, the disclosure contemplates creatingposts corresponding to any suitable civic issue in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, in response to receiving the request from theuser to post a civic issue on the online social network, civic-issuesplatform 300 may assign the post to one or more suitable agencies forresolving the civic issue. As an example and not by way of limitation, acivic issue may be associated with pothole repair, or any other suitableinfrastructure maintenance issue, within a particular community of SanFrancisco. Accordingly, a suitable agency assigned to resolve such civicissue may correspond to a government agency for the municipality of SanFrancisco, such as San Francisco Public Works for the city of SanFrancisco. In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300, or anysuitable server of civic-issues platform 300, may determine aclassification of the post based at least on the received request. Theclassification of the post may include one or more types of work forresolving the civic issue. As an example and not by way of limitation,types of work may include wiring, painting, building remodeling,carpentry, drywall finishing, plumbing, asphalt patching, or othersuitable types of work for resolving the civic issue. The classificationof the post may also include a scope of work for resolving the civicissue. As an example and not by way of limitation, the scope of work mayinclude traffic control, electrical, computer, or any suitablecombination thereof. The classification of the post may include anindication of urgency for resolving the civic issue. In particularembodiments, the scope of work may include an indication of urgencyassociated with the civic issue. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a user may indicate the civic issue has a “High”, “Medium”,or “Low” priority. Although this disclosure describes assigningparticular posts corresponding to particular civic issues in aparticular manner, the disclosure contemplates assigning any suitableposts corresponding to any suitable civic issues in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may determine theclassification of the post based at least on one or more n-gramsextracted from the text describing the civic issue. Civic-issuesplatform 300 may parse the text to extract the n-grams, and then comparethe extracted n-grams with one or more classification-keywords stored ineach of the public-agency databases to determine the classification ofthe post. As an example and not by way of limitation, referencing amalfunctioning traffic light as a posted civic issue, civic-issuesplatform 300 may extract n-grams, such as “malfunctioning”, “traffic”,“light”, and “street” and compare the extracted n-grams withclassification-keywords stored in each of the public-agency databaseswithin civic-issues platform 300 including, but not limited to, thepublic-agency databases associated with the San Francisco Public Worksand the San Francisco Police Department, respectively. Based at least onthe comparison, civic-issues platform 300 may determine a classificationfor the posted civic issue of the malfunctioning traffic light. As anexample and not by way of limitation, civic-issues platform 300 maydetermine a classification that includes traffic control, electrical,and computer as scope of work for repairing the malfunctioning trafficlight based at least on the comparison of the extracted n-grams“malfunctioning”, “traffic”, “light”, and “street” withclassification-keywords from the public-agency databases associated withthe San Francisco Public Works and the San Francisco Police Department,respectively. Although this disclosure describes classifying particularposts corresponding to particular civic issues in a particular manner,the disclosure contemplates classifying any suitable posts correspondingto any suitable civic issues in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may determine theclassification of the post based at least on one or more tags added bythe user to the request for creating the post. As an example and not byway of limitation, the user may add tags, such as “traffic”, “light”,“delay”, and “Mission” to the request for posting the civic issue of themalfunctioning traffic light. Thereafter, civic-issues platform 300 maydetermine a classification that includes traffic control, electrical,and computer as scope of work for repairing the malfunctioning trafficlight based at least on the added tags. In particular embodiments,civic-issues platform 300 may determine the classification of the postbased at least on social-networking data associated with the userposting the civic issue on civic-issues platform 300. Thesocial-networking data may be retrieved from social-networking database164C. As an example and not by way of limitation, referencing the postedcivic issue of the malfunctioning traffic light, civic-issues platform300 may retrieve social-networking data, such as social graph 200associated with the user, that indicates the user lives in a particulargeographic location associated with the municipality. Accordingly, basedat least the social-networking data, civic-issues platform 300 maydetermine that the posted civic issue is credible (e.g., not spam) andthereafter determine a classification for the post that indicates a“high” urgency for resolving the civic issue. As another example and notby way of limitation, civic-issues platform 300 may retrievesocial-networking data, such as social graph 200 associated with theuser, that indicates the user is globally popular based on a high number(e.g., 5000+) of friends or followers of the user on the online socialnetwork. Accordingly, based at least on the user's influence/popularityon the online social network indicated by the social-networking data,civic-issues platform 300 may determine a classification for the postthat indicates a “high” urgency for resolving the civic issue. Inparticular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may determine theclassification of the post based at least on the user-reported categoryassociated with the civic issue. As an example and not by way oflimitation, if the user-reported category corresponds to “hazard,”civic-issues platform 300 may determine a classification that indicatesa “high” urgency for resolving the civic issue. As another example andnot by way of limitation, if the user-reported category corresponds to“maintenance,” civic-issues platform 300 may determine a classificationthat indicates a “low” urgency for resolving the civic issue. Althoughthis disclosure describes classifying particular posts corresponding toparticular civic issues in a particular manner, the disclosurecontemplates classifying any suitable posts corresponding to anysuitable civic issues in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may assign the postassociated with the civic issue to one or more agencies of themunicipality based at least on the determined classification of the postand the location associated with the posted civic issue. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, referencing a posted civic issuecorresponding to a pothole on a junction of Mission Street and 5thStreet in San Francisco, civic-issues platform 300 may determine aclassification for the posted civic issue that includes types of work,such as traffic policing and asphalt patching. In addition, civic-issuesplatform 300 may retrieve a location of the pothole corresponding to thejunction of Mission Street and 5th Street in San Francisco from thereceived request (for example, from location information retrieved fromlocation services on the user's mobile client system 130). Based atleast on the determined classification and the retrieved location,civic-issues platform 300 may assign the posted civic issue to the SanFrancisco Public Works and the San Francisco Police Department. Asanother example and not by way of limitation, a user may create a postto report a particular road accident within a community on civic-issuesplatform 300. Furthermore, the user may post one or more imagesassociated with the road accident to civic-issues platform 300.Thereafter, civic-issues platform 300 may retrieve informationcorresponding to the location of the road accident from metadataassociated with the images. Based at least on the retrieved informationand the determined classification of the post corresponding to the roadaccident, civic-issues platform 300 may assign the posted civic issue toa fire station location of the San Francisco Fire Department closest tothe location of the road accident to provide immediate medicalassistance to the road accident. In particular embodiments, once theposted civic-issue has been assigned to one or more agencies of themunicipality, civic-issues platform 300 may store the post correspondingto the civic issue in an issue-tracking database, such as issue-trackingdatabase 164B. Although this disclosure describes assigning particularposts corresponding to particular civic issues in a particular manner,the disclosure contemplates assigning any suitable posts correspondingto any suitable civic issues in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, users of social-networking system 160 mayutilize civic-issues platform 300 to update and track progress inresolving a pending civic issue posted on civic-issues platform 300. Theuser updating or tracking the progress of the civic issue may be, forexample, the user who created the post associated with the pending civicissue, a user associated with the agency assigned to resolve the pendingcivic issue, a third-party user, or another suitable user of the onlinesocial network. The user who created the post may utilize client system130 to update and track the progress. In particular embodiments, theuser associated with the agency may utilize public-agency system 170coupled to civic-issues platform 300 via network 110, associated withthe agency to update and track the progress. The third-party user mayutilize client system 130 to update and track the progress. Inparticular embodiments, the third-party user may share particularconnections or attributes with the user who created the post. As anexample and not by way of limitation, the third-party user may live inthe municipality associated with the pending civic issue or within apre-determined threshold distance of the location associated with thepending civic issue. Accordingly, civic-issues platform 300 may enableother members of the community who are users of the online socialnetwork to register their support for the pending civic issue.Furthermore, civic-issues platform 300 may raise awareness within thecommunity for resolving the pending civic issue. In particularembodiments, the users may utilize a dashboard of civic-issues platform300 to update and track the pending civic issue. The dashboard may beprovided by and accessible to the public-agency system associated withthe agency. Although this disclosure describes updating and trackingparticular civic issues in particular manners, the disclosurecontemplates updating and tracking any suitable civic issues in anysuitable manners.

In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may receive arequest from a user of social-networking system 160 to update the poston civic-issues platform 300, where the request describes a currentstatus of the civic issue. As an example and not by way of limitation,civic-issues platform 300 may receive a request from an employee orcontractor assigned by the agency to resolve the civic issue, where therequest describes that the civic issue has been resolved. The update mayinclude a comment, a video, an image, a re-share, a like, a spam flag,another suitable update, or any combination thereof. In particularembodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may update the post inissue-tracking database 164B. As an example and not by way oflimitation, referencing the repair of the pothole at the junction ofMission Street and 5th Street in San Francisco, civic-issues platform300 may receive a request from a contractor assigned by the SanFrancisco Public Works to update the post on civic-issues platform 300corresponding to the civic issue, where the request includes a commentdescribing the resolution of the pothole and an image illustrating therepaired pothole. Accordingly, civic-issues platform 300 may update thepost in issue-tracking database 164B with the comment and the image.Civic-issues platform 300 may update the post on a dashboard accessibleby a public-agency system, such as public agency system 170A, associatedwith the agency. In particular embodiments, in response to the update ofthe post, civic-issues platform 300 may send a notification indicatingthat the post has been updated to the client system of the user whocreated the post. The notification may include a reference to thecurrent status of the civic issue. Civic-issues platform 300 may alsosend the notification to users who have, for example, commented on,reshared, posted updates to, or liked the original post. In particularembodiments, in response to the updating of the post, civic-issuesplatform 300 may receive a feedback associated with the current statusof the civic issue from a third-party user associated withsocial-networking system 160. The feedback may include supporting (e.g.,“liking,” up-voting, etc.) the current status of the post oncivic-issues platform 300, re-sharing the current status of the post onsocial-networking system 160, sending a request to update the post,posting a comment associated with the current status of the post oncivic-issues platform 300, or any suitable combination thereof. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a third-party user from thecommunity associated with the civic issue may send a feedback tocivic-issues platform 300 to confirm the current status of the civicissue, such as verifying the resolution of the civic issue. For example,as a user or agency indicates that a particular civic issue has beenresolved, civic-issues platform 300 may notify one or more other usersof the online social network (e.g., users who have previously liked thepost, users who live near the location associated with the civic issue,users who have subscribed to civic issues in the area, users who have ahistory of engaging with civic-issues platform 300, etc.) of the updateof the post associated with the civic issue. The update may also allowthe other users to confirm whether the civic issue has been resolved.Civic-issues platform 300 may then store one or more of the feedback inissue-tracking database 164B. In particular embodiments, civic-issuesplatform 300 may send a notification to a third-party user locatedwithin a pre-determined distance of the location associated with thecivic issue requesting to verify resolution of the civic issue. As anexample and not by way of limitation, referencing the repair of thepothole at the junction of Mission Street and 5th Street in SanFrancisco, civic-issues platform 300 may send a notification to athird-party user located within a pre-determined distance (e.g., 5000feet) of the junction of Mission Street and 5th Street requesting toverify the resolution of the pothole. Although this disclosure describesupdating particular posts in a particular manner, the disclosurecontemplates updating any suitable posts in any suitable particularmanner.

In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may retrieve fromissue-tracking database 164B one or more of the feedbacks to determine anumber of distinct users of social-networking system 160 who validated aresolution of the civic issue. As an example and not by way oflimitation, referencing the repair of the pothole at the junction ofMission Street and 5th Street in San Francisco, civic-issues platform300 may retrieve from issue-tracking database 164B feedbacks fromthird-party users of social-networking system 160 who validated theresolution of the pothole-repair civic issue. If the number of distinctusers is above pre-determined threshold entities, civic-issues platform300 may close the civic issue. As an example and not by way oflimitation, if the number of distinct third-party users who validatedthe resolution of the pothole is above a pre-determined thresholdentities (e.g., three third-party users), civic-issues platform 300 mayclose the pothole-repair civic issue. In particular embodiments,civic-issues platform 300 may close the civic issue by indicating astatus of the civic issue as resolved in issue-tracking database 164B.As an example and not by way of limitation, civic-issues platform 300may close the pothole-repair civic issue by marking the pothole-repaircivic issue in issue-tracking database 164B as resolved. In particularembodiments, in response to the closure of the civic issue, civic-issuesplatform 300 may send notifications to users of social-networking system160 who previously subscribed to the post associated with the civicissue, where the notifications indicate that the civic issue isresolved. As an example and not by way of limitation, in response to theclosure of the pothole-repair civic issue, civic-issues platform 300 maysend notifications to third-party users of social-networking system 160who previously subscribed to the post associated with the pothole-repaircivic issue, where the notifications indicate that the pothole-repaircivic issue is resolved. Although this disclosure describes managingposts corresponding to civic issues in a particular manner, thedisclosure contemplates managing posts corresponding to civic issues inany suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, civic-issue platform 300 may calculate aperformance score for each of the public agencies associated with thepublic-agency databases. The performance score may indicate aperformance of the public agency for resolving civic issues assigned tothe public agency. The performance score for each public agency may becalculated based at least on one or more parameters and their associatedvalues. As an example and not by way of limitation, the performancescore may be based on a number of civic issues being assigned to thepublic agency over a particular duration of time versus a number ofcivic issues being resolved by the public agency over the duration oftime, an average duration of time spent by the public agency to resolveassigned civic issues, an average number of votes posted by third-partyusers on civic-issues platform 300 favorable to resolutions of civicissues assigned to the public agency, a level of feedback (e.g., likes)the public agency receives on its responses to the original post, othersuitable factors, or any combination thereof. Although this disclosuredescribes calculating performance scores for public agencies in aparticular manner, the disclosure contemplates calculating performancescores for public agencies in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may rank one ormore public agencies associated with the public-agency databases. As anexample and not by way of limitation, civic-issues platform 300 mayaggregate the performance scores of public agencies associated with thepublic-agency databases, and rank each of the public agencies based atleast on the aggregate performance score. Furthermore, civic-issuesplatform 300 may rank public agencies within one or more geographicaljurisdictions or municipalities. As such, civic-issues platform 300 maycompare performance of a particular public agency within thegeographical jurisdictions or municipalities against performances ofother public agencies within the geographical jurisdictions ormunicipalities. In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 maycalculate a performance score for a municipality based on performancescores of one or more of its public agencies. As an example and not byway of limitation, civic-issues platform 300 may calculate a performancescore for the city of San Francisco based on performances scores of itspublic agencies including, but not limited to, the San Francisco PublicWorks, the San Francisco Fire Department, and the San Francisco PoliceDepartment. Furthermore, civic-issues platform 300 may rank the city ofSan Francisco based on its calculated performance score versuscalculated performance scores of one or more other cities (e.g., othercities in California, in the United States, or even globally).Accordingly, such ranking of the cities may encourage cities to competeagainst each other to resolve civic issues and improve their rankings.In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may also score/rankusers based on their participation/contributions with civic-issuesplatform 300. The score/rank of users could then be shared with otherusers via a leaderboard-type page. This may be useful as a way for usersto build a transparent record of public service which can be tracked andshared via the online social network. Although this disclosure describesranking public agencies and municipalities in a particular manner, thedisclosure contemplates ranking public agencies or municipalities in anysuitable manner.

In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may providemonetary incentives to the public agencies for promoting civicengagements via the online social network. Social-networking system 160may assign a user of civic-issues platform 300 to one or moreuser-clusters, where each user-cluster identifies a plurality of usersof the online social network for target advertising or other types ofcontent promotion on the online social network. As an example and not byway of limitation, a user-cluster may correspond to particular userssharing a common attribute (e.g., civic interests, politicalaffiliation, etc.), particular social cluster of social-networkingsystem 160 having particular friends-of-friends connections orsocial-graph affinities, particular demographics of users, or anysuitable combination thereof. Social-networking system 160 may assignthe user to the user-clusters based at least on an engagement of theuser with civic-issues platform 300. As an example and not by way oflimitation, in response to a first user posting about a pothole on ajunction of Mission Street and 5th Street in San Francisco (which is inthe so-called Union Square neighborhood of San Francisco) oncivic-issues platform 300, social-networking system 160 may assign thatuser to a user-cluster associated, for example, users interested in theUnion Square neighborhood of San Francisco, users interested in localpolitics in San Francisco, users interested in road traffic news, and/orother suitable user-clusters. Advertisements or other content could thenbe promoted to that user based on their assignment to one of theseuser-clusters. In particular embodiments, social-networking system 160may assign a user who posted about a particular civic issue oncivic-issues platform 300 to a particular user-cluster by comparing oneor more of the n-grams extracted from the text of the post associatedwith the civic issue with one or more ad-keywords associated with theuser-cluster. As an example and not by way of limitation, a user maycreate a post on civic-issues platform 300 to highlight a misspelledcandidate's name on a paper ballot voting for the mayor of SanFrancisco. Furthermore, a text of the post associated with the civicissue may include n-grams such as “San Francisco”, “mayor”,“democratic”, “Edwin”, and “Ed.” Thereafter, social-networking system160 may extract a subset of the n-grams (e.g., “mayor”, “democratic”,and “Ed”) from the text and compare the extracted n-grams withad-keywords associated with one or more user-clusters fromsocial-networking system 160 including, but not limited to,user-clusters associated with the Democratic Party and Mayor Ed Lee (whois mayor for the City of San Francisco) respectively. Furthermore,ad-keywords associated with the user-cluster of the Democratic Party mayinclude “democratic” and ad-keywords associated with the user-cluster ofEd Lee may include “Ed”, “mayor”, and “San Francisco.” Next,social-networking system 160 may assign the user to the user-clustersassociated with the Democratic Party and Mayor Ed Lee based on one ormore matches between the extracted n-grams (i.e., “mayor”, “democratic”,and “Ed”) and the ad-keywords (i.e., “democratic”, “Ed”, “mayor”, and“San Francisco”) associated with the user-clusters. Although thisdisclosure describes assigning users to particular user-clusters in aparticular manner, the disclosure contemplates assigning users to anysuitable user-clusters in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, in response to the assignment of the user toone or more user-clusters for targeting advertising on the online socialnetwork, advertiser system 170B may generate one or more advertisementson the online social network (or possible advertisements for third-partycontent providers) targeting the user. Advertiser system 170B may beassociated with a third-party advertiser. Furthermore, advertiser system170B may generate the advertisements based at least on the user-clustersassigned to the user. The generated advertisements may be placed on anypage of the online social network, such as a page of civic-issuesplatform 300, engaged by the user. As another example and not by way oflimitation, in response to assigning the user to the user-clusterassociated with the Democratic Party as discussed above, advertisersystem 170B may generate one or more advertisement banners that raisefunding for other Democratic candidates running for public offices inSan Francisco in any page on the online social network engaged by theuser. In particular embodiments, civic-issues platform 300 may share asubset of the advertising revenue associated with one or more of thegenerated advertisements with one or more public agencies associatedwith civic-issues platform 300. Accordingly, such sharing of theadvertising revenue with the public agencies may incentivize the publicagencies to promote civic engagements via civic-issues platform 300.Such sharing of the advertising revenue with the public agencies mayeven incentivize users of social-networking system 160 to engage incivic issues that they are concerned with as a way to raise money forthe public agency they want to support. Although this disclosuredescribes monetizing civic engagements on particular online socialnetwork in a particular manner, the disclosure contemplates monetizingcivic engagements on any suitable online social network in any suitablemanner.

FIG. 4 illustrates a webpage of social-networking system 160 associatedwith civic-issues platform 300 for the city of San Francisco. In theexample of FIG. 4, the webpage includes header-content block 402,status-content block 404, people-content block 406, input form 408,civic-issue-content blocks 410A-410B, and advertisement content block412. The webpage may be generated after the user (i.e., Amod) has loggedinto social-networking system 160. In particular embodiments,header-content block 402 may include information associated with thecity of San Francisco. In the example of FIG. 4, header-content block402 indicates that San Francisco is ranked the 16th-best city in theworld, the ranking being based on its calculated performance scoreversus calculated performance scores of all cities globally. Inparticular embodiments, header-content block 402 may include one or moretabs for enabling the user to navigate between webpages of thecivic-issues platform 300 for the city of San Francisco. In the exampleof FIG. 4, header-content block 402 includes a “Timeline” tab enablingthe user to navigate to the webpage illustrated by FIG. 4. In theexample of FIG. 4, header-content block 402 further includes an “Issues”tab enabling the user to navigate to a webpage that includes a list ofcivic issues currently assigned to public agencies associated with SanFrancisco. The “Issues” tab illustrated in FIG. 4 also illustrates thenumber of civic issues (“210” issues) outstanding. In the example ofFIG. 4, header-content block 402 further includes a “Surveys” tab (whichshows there are 24 surveys) enabling the user to navigate to a webpagethat includes a list of 24 surveys and their results previouslycompleted by users of civic-issues platform 300 for one or more publicagencies of San Francisco. Civic-issues platform 300 may calculateperformance scores for one or more of the public agencies based at leaston the results of the 24 surveys. In the example of FIG. 4,header-content block 402 further includes a “Polls” tab (which showsthere are 19 polls) enabling the user to navigate to a webpage thatincludes a list of 19 polls previously completed by users ofcivic-issues platform 300. Each of the 19 polls may request a user, forexample, to vote for a performance of public agency in resolving a civicissue previously posted by the user on civic-issues platform 300.Civic-issues platform 300 may calculate performance scores for one ormore of the public agencies based at least on the results of the polls.In particular embodiments, header-content block 402 may include one ormore User-interface tools provided by social-networking system 160 topromote civic-issues platform 300 to users of the online social network.In the example of FIG. 4, header-content block 402 includesUser-interface tools allowing a user to like civic-issue platform 300,follow civic-issues platform 300, or re-share civic-issues platform 300with other third-party users of social-networking system 160. Inparticular embodiments, status-content block 404 may include informationquantifying one or more statuses of San Francisco and its civic issues.In the example of FIG. 4, status-content block 404 includes informationindicating a number of pending civic issues (i.e., “210 issues open”)associated with San Francisco, a number of resolved civic issues (i.e.,“598 issues resolved) associated with San Francisco, an average numberof days for resolving a civic issue (i.e., “15 days average time”) inSan Francisco, and a current ranking of San Francisco in resolving civicissues (i.e., “Ranked 16th in the world”). In particular embodiments,people-content block 406 may include information quantifying feedbackfrom users of social-networking system 160 toward civic-issues platform300. In the example of FIG. 4, people-content block 406 includes anumber of users of social-networking system 160 (i.e., “28,568 likes”)liking civic-issues platform 300 on the online social network. Althoughthis disclosure describes and illustrates accessing a particular userinterface a civic-issues platform in a particular manner, the disclosurecontemplates accessing any suitable user interface (e.g., a webpage, auser interface of a native application, or a augmented/virtual realityinterface) a civic-issues platform in any suitable manner.

In particular embodiments, input form 408 may allow the user to post acivic issue on civic-issues platform 300. In the example of FIG. 4,input form 408 includes a text area (i.e., text area containing “How canwe improve our city?”) corresponding to “issue” tab. Furthermore, thetext area may allow the user to enter text describing the civic issue.In addition, input form 408 includes “Photo/Video” tab allowing the userto submit a photo or a video to illustrate the civic issue. Input form408 also includes a select box (i.e., “Problem” select box) allowing theuser to select a particular user-reported category, such as “Problem”,“Hazard”, or “Improvement”, corresponding to the civic issue. Input form408 also includes a button (i.e., “Post” button) allowing the user tosubmit the post corresponding to the civic issue to civic-issuesplatform 300. In particular embodiments, civic-issue-content blocks410A-410B may describe particular pending civic issues posted by usersof civic-issues platform 300 in particular chronological order. In theexample of FIG. 4, civic-issue-content block 410A describes a civicissue (i.e., problem 1327) posted by Tamra Nielson on Dec. 7, 2014associated with a pothole on Market Street and Fremont Ave. in SanFrancisco. In addition, civic-issue-content block 410A includesinformation indicating that the civic issue has been viewed 4123 timeson civic-issues platform 300, commented 34 times on civic-issuesplatform 300, re-shared 86 times on civic-issues platform 300, andsupported 297 times on civic-issues platform 300. Furthermore,civic-issue-content block 410A includes an update by a vendor (i.e.,Golden Gate Construction) assigned to resolve the pothole problemindicating that the civic issue has been fixed. Based at least on theupdate, civic-issue-content block 410A includes a button (i.e.,“Confirm” button) for users of civic-issues platform 300 to confirmwhether the pothole problem is resolved and a text area (i.e., “Write acomment . . . ” text area) for users of civic-issues platform 300 topost a comment responding to the update by the vendor, as discussedabove. In the example of FIG. 4, civic-issue-content block 410Bdescribes a civic issue (i.e., improvement 1326) posted by Rachel Wangon Dec. 6, 2014 associated with no street lights on Mission Street inSan Francisco. In addition, civic-issue-content block 410B includes anupdate by a vendor (i.e., Golden Gate Construction) assigned to resolvethe lights improvement indicating that the civic issue has been fixed.Based at least on the update, civic-issue-content block 410B includes abutton (i.e., “Confirm” button) for users of civic-issues platform 300to confirm whether the lights improvement is resolved and a text area(i.e., “Write a comment . . . ” text area) for users of civic-issuesplatform 300 to post a comment responding to the update by the vendor,as discussed above. In particular embodiments, advertisement contentblock 412 may include one or more advertisements targeting the user(i.e. Amod) on civic-issues platform 300. In the example of FIG. 4,advertiser system 170B generates the advertisements based at least onuser-clusters associated with photo-editing software and videoconferencing software respectively. In particular embodiments,advertising revenue generated by the user clicking on any of the linksto the advertisements may be shared with one or more public agencies ofSan Francisco as discussed above.

FIG. 5 illustrates method 500 of civic engagement associated withcivic-issues platform 300. The method may begin at step 510, where oneor more computing devices may receive a post corresponding to a civicissue on a civic-issues platform of an online social network associatedwith a first municipality from a client system of a first user of anonline social network. Furthermore, the post may include text describingthe civic issue, a location associated with the civic issue, and auser-reported category corresponding to the civic issue. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, referencing FIGS. 3 and 4, server 162 mayreceive a post, such as information associated with input form 408entered by user 306A (e.g., user “Tamra Nielson”), corresponding topothole problem 1327 on Market Street and Fremont Ave. in San Franciscoon civic-issues platform 300 of social-networking system 160 associatedwith the municipality of San Francisco from client system 130A of user306A of social-networking system 160. Furthermore, the post may includetext describing the civic issue retrieved from the text area of inputform 408 (e.g., text description of the pothole problem incivic-issue-content box 410A), a location (e.g., junction of MarketStreet and Fremont Ave. in San Francisco) associated with the civicissue, and a user-reported category (e.g., “Problem”) corresponding tothe civic issue retrieved from the “Problem” select box of input form408. At step 520, the computing devices may extract one or more n-gramsfrom the text of the post. As an example and not by way of limitation,referencing FIGS. 3 and 4, server 162 may extract n-grams, such as“street” and “pothole”, from the text of the post. At step 530, thecomputing devices may determine a classification of the post based onsocial-networking information associated with the first user, theextracted n-grams, and the user-reported category associated with thecivic issue. As an example and not by way of limitation, referencingFIGS. 2, 3 and 4, server 162 may determine a classification (e.g.,asphalt patching and high priority) for the post based on social graph200 associated with user 306A, the extracted n-grams of “street” and“pothole”, and the user-reported category “Problem”. At step 540, thecomputing devices may assign the post to a first agency of the firstmunicipality based on the determined classification of the civic-issueand the location associated with the civic issue. As an example and notby way of limitation, referencing FIG. 3, server 162 may assign the postto the San Francisco Public Works based on the determined classification(e.g., asphalt patching) of the civic-issue and the location (e.g.,Mission Street and Fremont Ave. in San Francisco) associated with thecivic issue.

At step 550, the computing devices may receive a request from a firstentity associated with the online social network to update the post onthe civic-issues platform, where the request describes a current statusof the civic issue. As an example and not by way of limitation,referencing FIGS. 3 and 4, server 162 may receive a request from acontractor associated with social-networking system 160 and assigned toresolve the civic issue to update civic-issue-content block 410A oncivic-issues platform 300, where the request describes that the issue isfixed. At step 560, the computing devices may update the post on thecivic-issues platform to indicate the current status of the civic issue.As an example and not by way of limitation, referencing FIGS. 3 and 4,server 162 may update civic-issue-content block 410A on civic-issuesplatform 300 to indicate that the civic issue has been fixed. At step570, the computing devices may send, to the client system of the firstuser for display in response to the update of the post, a notificationindicating the post on the civic-issues platform has been updated.Furthermore, the notification may include a reference to the currentstatus of the civic issue. As an example and not by way of limitation,referencing FIGS. 3 and 4, server 162 may send, to client system 130A ofuser 306A for display in response to the update of civic-issue-contentblock 410A, a notification indicating civic-issue-content block 410A oncivic-issues platform 300 has been updated. Furthermore, thenotification may include a reference indicating that the civic issue hasbeen fixed. Although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular steps of method 500 of FIG. 5 as occurring in a particularorder, this disclosure contemplates any suitable steps of method 500 ofFIG. 5 occurring in any suitable order. Moreover, although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates an example method for civicengagement associated with civic-issues platform 300 including theparticular steps of method 500 of FIG. 5, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable method for civic engagement associated with any suitablecivic-issues platform including any suitable steps, which may includeall, some, or none of the steps of method 500 of FIG. 5, whereappropriate. Furthermore, although this disclosure describes andillustrates particular components, devices, or systems carrying outparticular steps of method 500 of FIG. 5, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable combination of any suitable components, devices, or systemscarrying out any suitable steps of method 500 of FIG. 5.

Advertising

In particular embodiments, an advertisement may be text (which may beHTML-linked), one or more images (which may be HTML-linked), one or morevideos, audio, other suitable digital object files, a suitablecombination of these, or any other suitable advertisement in anysuitable digital format presented on one or more web pages, in one ormore e-mails, or in connection with search results requested by a user.In addition or as an alternative, an advertisement may be one or moresponsored stories (e.g., a news-feed or ticker item on social-networkingsystem 160). A sponsored story may be a social action by a user (such as“liking” a page, “liking” or commenting on a post on a page, RSVPing toan event associated with a page, voting on a question posted on a page,checking in to a place, using an application or playing a game, or“liking” or sharing a website) that an advertiser promotes, for example,by having the social action presented within a pre-determined area of aprofile page of a user or other page, presented with additionalinformation associated with the advertiser, bumped up or otherwisehighlighted within news feeds or tickers of other users, or otherwisepromoted. The advertiser may pay to have the social action promoted. Thesocial action may be promoted within or on social-networking system 160.In addition or as an alternative, the social action may be promotedoutside or off of social-networking system 160, where appropriate. Inparticular embodiments, a page may be an on-line presence (such as awebpage or website within or outside of social-networking system 160) ofa business, organization, or brand facilitating its sharing of storiesand connecting with people. A page may be customized, for example, byadding applications, posting stories, or hosting events.

A sponsored story may be generated from stories in users' news feeds andpromoted to specific areas within displays of users' web browsers whenviewing a web page associated with social-networking system 160.Sponsored stories are more likely to be viewed by users, at least inpart because sponsored stories generally involve interactions orsuggestions by the users' friends, fan pages, or other connections. Inconnection with sponsored stories, particular embodiments may utilizeone or more systems, components, elements, functions, methods,operations, or steps disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/327,557, entitled “Sponsored Stories Unit Creation from OrganicActivity Stream” and filed 15 Dec. 2011, U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2012/0203831, entitled “Sponsored Stories Unit Creationfrom Organic Activity Stream” and filed 3 Feb. 2012 as U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/020,745, or U.S. Patent Application PublicationNo. 2012/0233009, entitled “Endorsement Subscriptions for SponsoredStories” and filed 9 Mar. 2011 as U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/044,506, which are all incorporated herein by reference as an exampleand not by way of limitation. In particular embodiments, sponsoredstories may utilize computer-vision algorithms to detect products inuploaded images or photos lacking an explicit connection to anadvertiser as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/212,356,entitled “Computer-Vision Content Detection for Sponsored Stories” andfiled 18 Aug. 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference as anexample and not by way of limitation.

As described above, an advertisement may be text (which may beHTML-linked), one or more images (which may be HTML-linked), one or morevideos, audio, a suitable combination of these, or any other suitableadvertisement in any suitable digital format. In particular embodiments,an advertisement may be requested for display within third-partywebpages, social-networking-system webpages, or other pages. Anadvertisement may be displayed in a dedicated portion of a page, such asin a banner area at the top of the page, in a column at the side of thepage, in a user interface of the page, in a pop-up window, over the topof content of the page, or elsewhere with respect to the page. Inaddition or as an alternative, an advertisement may be displayed withinan application or within a game. An advertisement may be displayedwithin dedicated pages, requiring the user to interact with or watch theadvertisement before the user may access a page, utilize an application,or play a game. The user may, for example view the advertisement througha web browser.

A user may interact with an advertisement in any suitable manner. Theuser may click or otherwise select the advertisement, and theadvertisement may direct the user (or a browser or other applicationbeing used by the user) to a page associated with the advertisement. Atthe page associated with the advertisement, the user may take additionalactions, such as purchasing a product or service associated with theadvertisement, receiving information associated with the advertisement,or subscribing to a newsletter associated with the advertisement. Anadvertisement with audio or video may be played by selecting a componentof the advertisement (like a “play button”). In particular embodiments,an advertisement may include one or more games, which a user or otherapplication may play in connection with the advertisement. Anadvertisement may include functionality for responding to a poll orquestion in the advertisement.

An advertisement may include social-networking-system functionality thata user may interact with. For example, an advertisement may enable auser to “like” or otherwise endorse the advertisement by selecting anicon or link associated with endorsement. Similarly, a user may sharethe advertisement with another user (e.g., through social-networkingsystem 160) or RSVP (e.g., through social-networking system 160) to anevent associated with the advertisement. In addition or as analternative, an advertisement may include social-networking-systemcontent directed to the user. For example, an advertisement may displayinformation about a friend of the user within social-networking system160 who has taken an action associated with the subject matter of theadvertisement.

Social-networking-system functionality or content may be associated withan advertisement in any suitable manner. For example, an advertisingsystem (which may include hardware, software, or both for receiving bidsfor advertisements and selecting advertisements in response) mayretrieve social-networking functionality or content fromsocial-networking system 160 and incorporate the retrievedsocial-networking functionality or content into the advertisement beforeserving the advertisement to a user. Examples of selecting and providingsocial-networking-system functionality or content with an advertisementare disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0084160,entitled “Providing Social Endorsements with Online Advertising” andfiled 5 Oct. 2010 as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/898,662, and inU.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0232998, entitled“Selecting Social Endorsement Information for an Advertisement forDisplay to a Viewing User” and filed 8 Mar. 2011 as U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/043,424, which are both incorporated herein byreference as examples only and not by way of limitation. Interactingwith an advertisement that is associated with social-networking-systemfunctionality or content may cause information about the interaction tobe displayed in a profile page of the user in social-networking-system160.

Particular embodiments may facilitate the delivery of advertisements tousers that are more likely to find the advertisements more relevant oruseful. For example, an advertiser may realize higher conversion rates(and therefore higher return on investment (ROI) from advertising) byidentifying and targeting users that are more likely to find itsadvertisements more relevant or useful. The advertiser may useuser-profile information in social-networking system 160 to identifythose users. In addition or as an alternative, social-networking system160 may use user-profile information in social-networking system 160 toidentify those users for the advertiser. As examples and not by way oflimitation, particular embodiments may target users with the following:invitations or suggestions of events; suggestions regarding coupons,deals, or wish-list items; suggestions regarding friends' life events;suggestions regarding groups; advertisements; or social advertisements.Such targeting may occur, where appropriate, on or withinsocial-networking system 160, off or outside of social-networking system160, or on mobile computing devices of users. When on or withinsocial-networking system 160, such targeting may be directed to users'news feeds, search results, e-mail or other in-boxes, or notificationschannels or may appear in particular area of web pages ofsocial-networking system 160, such as a right-hand side of a web page ina concierge or grouper area (which may group along a right-hand railadvertisements associated with the same concept, node, or object) or anetwork-ego area (which may be based on what a user is viewing on theweb page and a current news feed of the user). When off or outside ofsocial-networking system 160, such targeting may be provided through athird-party website, e.g., involving an ad exchange or a social plug-in.When on a mobile computing device of a user, such targeting may beprovided through push notifications to the mobile computing device.

Targeting criteria used to identify and target users may includeexplicit, stated user interests on social-networking system 160 orexplicit connections of a user to a node, object, entity, brand, or pageon social-networking system 160. In addition or as an alternative, suchtargeting criteria may include implicit or inferred user interests orconnections (which may include analyzing a user's history, demographic,social or other activities, friends' social or other activities,subscriptions, or any of the preceding of other users similar to theuser (based, e.g., on shared interests, connections, or events)).Particular embodiments may utilize platform targeting, which may involveplatform and “like” impression data; contextual signals (e.g., “Who isviewing now or has viewed recently the page for a popular soft drinkbrand?”); light-weight connections (e.g., “check-ins”); connectionlookalikes; fans; extracted keywords; EMU advertising; inferentialadvertising; coefficients, affinities, or other social-graphinformation; friends-of-friends connections; pinning or boosting; deals;polls; household income, social clusters or groups; products detected inimages or other media; social- or open-graph edge types; geo-prediction;views of profile or pages; status updates or other user posts (analysisof which may involve natural-language processing or keyword extraction);events information; or collaborative filtering. Identifying andtargeting users may also include privacy settings (such as useropt-outs), data hashing, or data anonymization, as appropriate.

To target users with advertisements, particular embodiments may utilizeone or more systems, components, elements, functions, methods,operations, or steps disclosed in the following, which are allincorporated herein by reference as examples and not by way oflimitation: U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0119167,entitled “Social Advertisements and Other Informational Messages on aSocial Networking Website and Advertising Model for Same” and filed 18Aug. 2008 as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/193,702; U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2009/0070219, entitled “TargetingAdvertisements in a Social Network” and filed 20 Aug. 2008 as U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/195,321; U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2012/0158501, entitled “Targeting Social Advertising toFriends of Users Who Have Interacted With an Object Associated with theAdvertising” and filed 15 Dec. 2010 as U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/968,786; or U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0166532,entitled “Contextually Relevant Affinity Prediction in aSocial-Networking System” and filed 23 Dec. 2010 as U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/978,265.

An advertisement may be presented or otherwise delivered using plug-insfor web browsers or other applications, iframe elements, news feeds,tickers, notifications (which may include, for example, e-mail, ShortMessage Service (SMS) messages, or notifications), or other means. Anadvertisement may be presented or otherwise delivered to a user on amobile or other computing device of the user. In connection withdelivering advertisements, particular embodiments may utilize one ormore systems, components, elements, functions, methods, operations, orsteps disclosed in the following, which are all incorporated herein byreference as examples and not by way of limitation: U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2012/0159635, entitled “Comment Plug-In forThird-Party System” and filed 15 Dec. 2010, as U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/969,368; U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2012/0158753, entitled “Comment Ordering System” and filed 15 Dec. 2010as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/969,408; U.S. Pat. No. 7,669,123,entitled “Dynamically Providing a News Feed About a User of a SocialNetwork” and filed 11 Aug. 2006 as U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/503,242; U.S. Pat. No. 8,402,094, entitled “Providing a NewsfeedBased on User Affinity for Entities and Monitored Actions in a SocialNetwork Environment” and filed 11 Aug. 2006 as U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/503,093; U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2012/0072428, entitled “Action Clustering for News Feeds” and filed 16Sep. 2010 as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/884,010; U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2011/0004692, entitled “GatheringInformation about Connections in a Social Networking Service” and filed1 Jul. 2009 as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/496,606; U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2008/0065701, entitled “Method and Systemfor Tracking Changes to User Content in an Online Social Network” andfiled 12 Sep. 2006 as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/531,154; U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0065604, entitled “FeedingUpdates to Landing Pages of Users of an Online Social Network fromExternal Sources” and filed 17 Jan. 2007 as U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/624,088; U.S. Pat. No. 8,244,848, entitled “IntegratedSocial-Network Environment” and filed 19 Apr. 2010 as U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/763,171; U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2011/0083101, entitled “Sharing of Location-Based Content Item inSocial-Networking Service” and filed 6 Oct. 2009 as U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/574,614; U.S. Pat. No. 8,150,844, entitled“Location Ranking Using Social-Graph Information” and filed 18 Aug. 2010as U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/858,718; U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/051,286, entitled “Sending Notifications to Users Based onUsers' Notification Tolerance Levels” and filed 18 Mar. 2011; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/096,184, entitled “Managing NotificationsPushed to User Devices” and filed 28 Apr. 2011; U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/276,248, entitled “Platform-Specific Notification DeliveryChannel” and filed 18 Oct. 2011; or U.S. Patent Application PublicationNo. 2012/0197709, entitled “Mobile Advertisement with Social Componentfor Geo-Social Networking System” and filed 1 Feb. 2011 as U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/019,061. Although this disclosure describes orillustrates particular advertisements being delivered in particular waysand in connection with particular content, this disclosure contemplatesany suitable advertisements delivered in any suitable ways and inconnection with any suitable content.

System and Methods

FIG. 6 illustrates an example computer system 600. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 600 perform one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 600 provide functionalitydescribed or illustrated herein. In particular embodiments, softwarerunning on one or more computer systems 600 performs one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein or providesfunctionality described or illustrated herein. Particular embodimentsinclude one or more portions of one or more computer systems 600.Herein, reference to a computer system may encompass a computing device,and vice versa, where appropriate. Moreover, reference to a computersystem may encompass one or more computer systems, where appropriate.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable number of computer systems600. This disclosure contemplates computer system 600 taking anysuitable physical form. As example and not by way of limitation,computer system 600 may be an embedded computer system, a system-on-chip(SOC), a single-board computer system (SBC) (such as, for example, acomputer-on-module (COM) or system-on-module (SOM)), a desktop computersystem, a laptop or notebook computer system, an interactive kiosk, amainframe, a mesh of computer systems, a mobile telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a server, a tablet computer system, anaugmented/virtual reality device, or a combination of two or more ofthese. Where appropriate, computer system 600 may include one or morecomputer systems 600; be unitary or distributed; span multiplelocations; span multiple machines; span multiple data centers; or residein a cloud, which may include one or more cloud components in one ormore networks. Where appropriate, one or more computer systems 600 mayperform without substantial spatial or temporal limitation one or moresteps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein. As anexample and not by way of limitation, one or more computer systems 600may perform in real time or in batch mode one or more steps of one ormore methods described or illustrated herein. One or more computersystems 600 may perform at different times or at different locations oneor more steps of one or more methods described or illustrated herein,where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, computer system 600 includes a processor 602,memory 604, storage 606, an input/output (I/O) interface 608, acommunication interface 610, and a bus 612. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates a particular computer system having aparticular number of particular components in a particular arrangement,this disclosure contemplates any suitable computer system having anysuitable number of any suitable components in any suitable arrangement.

In particular embodiments, processor 602 includes hardware for executinginstructions, such as those making up a computer program. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, to execute instructions, processor 602 mayretrieve (or fetch) the instructions from an internal register, aninternal cache, memory 604, or storage 606; decode and execute them; andthen write one or more results to an internal register, an internalcache, memory 604, or storage 606. In particular embodiments, processor602 may include one or more internal caches for data, instructions, oraddresses. This disclosure contemplates processor 602 including anysuitable number of any suitable internal caches, where appropriate. Asan example and not by way of limitation, processor 602 may include oneor more instruction caches, one or more data caches, and one or moretranslation lookaside buffers (TLBs). Instructions in the instructioncaches may be copies of instructions in memory 604 or storage 606, andthe instruction caches may speed up retrieval of those instructions byprocessor 602. Data in the data caches may be copies of data in memory604 or storage 606 for instructions executing at processor 602 tooperate on; the results of previous instructions executed at processor602 for access by subsequent instructions executing at processor 602 orfor writing to memory 604 or storage 606; or other suitable data. Thedata caches may speed up read or write operations by processor 602. TheTLBs may speed up virtual-address translation for processor 602. Inparticular embodiments, processor 602 may include one or more internalregisters for data, instructions, or addresses. This disclosurecontemplates processor 602 including any suitable number of any suitableinternal registers, where appropriate. Where appropriate, processor 602may include one or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs); be a multi-coreprocessor; or include one or more processors 602. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular processor, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable processor.

In particular embodiments, memory 604 includes main memory for storinginstructions for processor 602 to execute or data for processor 602 tooperate on. As an example and not by way of limitation, computer system600 may load instructions from storage 606 or another source (such as,for example, another computer system 600) to memory 604. Processor 602may then load the instructions from memory 604 to an internal registeror internal cache. To execute the instructions, processor 602 mayretrieve the instructions from the internal register or internal cacheand decode them. During or after execution of the instructions,processor 602 may write one or more results (which may be intermediateor final results) to the internal register or internal cache. Processor602 may then write one or more of those results to memory 604. Inparticular embodiments, processor 602 executes only instructions in oneor more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 604 (asopposed to storage 606 or elsewhere) and operates only on data in one ormore internal registers or internal caches or in memory 604 (as opposedto storage 606 or elsewhere). One or more memory buses (which may eachinclude an address bus and a data bus) may couple processor 602 tomemory 604. Bus 612 may include one or more memory buses, as describedbelow. In particular embodiments, one or more memory management units(MMUs) reside between processor 602 and memory 604 and facilitateaccesses to memory 604 requested by processor 602. In particularembodiments, memory 604 includes random access memory (RAM). This RAMmay be volatile memory, where appropriate Where appropriate, this RAMmay be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). Moreover, whereappropriate, this RAM may be single-ported or multi-ported RAM. Thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable RAM. Memory 604 may include one ormore memories 604, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular memory, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable memory.

In particular embodiments, storage 606 includes mass storage for data orinstructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, storage 606may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a floppy disk drive, flash memory,an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, magnetic tape, or a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) drive or a combination of two or more of these. Storage606 may include removable or non-removable (or fixed) media, whereappropriate. Storage 606 may be internal or external to computer system600, where appropriate. In particular embodiments, storage 606 isnon-volatile, solid-state memory. In particular embodiments, storage 606includes read-only memory (ROM). Where appropriate, this ROM may bemask-programmed ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM),electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), electrically alterable ROM (EAROM),or flash memory or a combination of two or more of these. Thisdisclosure contemplates mass storage 606 taking any suitable physicalform. Storage 606 may include one or more storage control unitsfacilitating communication between processor 602 and storage 606, whereappropriate. Where appropriate, storage 606 may include one or morestorages 606. Although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular storage, this disclosure contemplates any suitable storage.

In particular embodiments, I/O interface 608 includes hardware,software, or both, providing one or more interfaces for communicationbetween computer system 600 and one or more I/O devices. Computer system600 may include one or more of these I/O devices, where appropriate. Oneor more of these I/O devices may enable communication between a personand computer system 600. As an example and not by way of limitation, anI/O device may include a keyboard, keypad, microphone, monitor, mouse,printer, scanner, speaker, still camera, stylus, tablet, touch screen,trackball, video camera, another suitable I/O device or a combination oftwo or more of these. An I/O device may include one or more sensors.This disclosure contemplates any suitable I/O devices and any suitableI/O interfaces 608 for them. Where appropriate, I/O interface 608 mayinclude one or more device or software drivers enabling processor 602 todrive one or more of these I/O devices. I/O interface 608 may includeone or more I/O interfaces 608, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular I/O interface, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable I/O interface.

In particular embodiments, communication interface 610 includeshardware, software, or both providing one or more interfaces forcommunication (such as, for example, packet-based communication) betweencomputer system 600 and one or more other computer systems 600 or one ormore networks. As an example and not by way of limitation, communicationinterface 610 may include a network interface controller (NIC) ornetwork adapter for communicating with an Ethernet or other wire-basednetwork or a wireless NIC (WNIC) or wireless adapter for communicatingwith a wireless network, such as a WI-FI network. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable network and any suitable communicationinterface 610 for it. As an example and not by way of limitation,computer system 600 may communicate with an ad hoc network, a personalarea network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or one or more portions of theInternet or a combination of two or more of these. One or more portionsof one or more of these networks may be wired or wireless. As anexample, computer system 600 may communicate with a wireless PAN (WPAN)(such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FI network, a WI-MAXnetwork, a cellular telephone network (such as, for example, a GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), or other suitablewireless network or a combination of two or more of these. Computersystem 600 may include any suitable communication interface 610 for anyof these networks, where appropriate. Communication interface 610 mayinclude one or more communication interfaces 610, where appropriate.Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particularcommunication interface, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecommunication interface.

In particular embodiments, bus 612 includes hardware, software, or bothcoupling components of computer system 600 to each other. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, bus 612 may include an AcceleratedGraphics Port (AGP) or other graphics bus, an Enhanced Industry StandardArchitecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HYPERTRANSPORT (HT)interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an INFINIBANDinterconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, aPCI-Express (PCIe) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA)bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, oranother suitable bus or a combination of two or more of these. Bus 612may include one or more buses 612, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular bus, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable bus or interconnect.

Herein, a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium or media mayinclude one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits(ICs) (such, as for example, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) orapplication-specific ICs (ASICs)), hard disk drives (HDDs), hybrid harddrives (HHDs), optical discs, optical disc drives (ODDs),magneto-optical discs, magneto-optical drives, floppy diskettes, floppydisk drives (FDDs), magnetic tapes, solid-state drives (SSDs),RAM-drives, SECURE DIGITAL cards or drives, any other suitablecomputer-readable non-transitory storage media, or any suitablecombination of two or more of these, where appropriate. Acomputer-readable non-transitory storage medium may be volatile,non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, whereappropriate.

Miscellaneous

Herein, “or” is inclusive and not exclusive, unless expressly indicatedotherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Therefore, herein, “A or B”means “A, B, or both,” unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicatedotherwise by context. Moreover, “and” is both joint and several, unlessexpressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.Therefore, herein, “A and B” means “A and B, jointly or severally,”unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.

The scope of this disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions,variations, alterations, and modifications to the example embodimentsdescribed or illustrated herein that a person having ordinary skill inthe art would comprehend. The scope of this disclosure is not limited tothe example embodiments described or illustrated herein. Moreover,although this disclosure describes and illustrates respectiveembodiments herein as including particular components, elements,feature, functions, operations, or steps, any of these embodiments mayinclude any combination or permutation of any of the components,elements, features, functions, operations, or steps described orillustrated anywhere herein that a person having ordinary skill in theart would comprehend. Furthermore, reference in the appended claims toan apparatus or system or a component of an apparatus or system beingadapted to, arranged to, capable of, configured to, enabled to, operableto, or operative to perform a particular function encompasses thatapparatus, system, component, whether or not it or that particularfunction is activated, turned on, or unlocked, as long as thatapparatus, system, or component is so adapted, arranged, capable,configured, enabled, operable, or operative. Additionally, although thisdisclosure describes or illustrates particular embodiments as providingparticular advantages, particular embodiments may provide none, some, orall of these advantages.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising, by one or more computingdevices: receiving, from a client system of a first user of an onlinesocial network, a post corresponding to a civic issue on a civic-issuesplatform of the online social network associated with a firstmunicipality, wherein the post comprises a user-generated text componentdescribing the civic issue; parsing the user-generated text component ofthe post describing the civic issue to extract one or more n-grams fromthe user-generated text component of the post; comparing the extractedone or more n-grams with a plurality of sets of classification-keywordsstored in a public-agency database, each set of classification-keywordslinked to a respective agency of a plurality of agencies of the firstmunicipality and being indicative of one or more types of work performedby the respective agency, to determine a classification of the post;assigning the post to a first agency of the plurality of agencies of thefirst municipality based on the determined classification of the postand a location associated with the civic issue; receiving a request toupdate the post on the civic-issues platform, the request describing acurrent status of the civic issue, wherein the request is from an entityassociated with the first municipality; and updating the post on thecivic-issues platform to indicate the current status of the civic issue.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity comprises: the first userof the online social network; a second user of the online socialnetwork; or the first agency.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein thesecond user lives in the first municipality or is within a thresholddistance of the location associated with the civic issue.
 4. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: authenticating the first user on theonline social network, the authentication occurring prior to receivingthe post from the client system of the first user.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the civic issue is associated with an infrastructuremaintenance issue within the first municipality.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein the classification of the post comprises a type or scope ofwork for resolving the civic issue.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinthe civic-issues platform comprises one or more public-agency databases,each public-agency database being associated with a particular agency ofthe first municipality, wherein each public-agency database storesinformation associated with one or more civic issues associated with theparticular agency.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein theclassification-keywords are associated with the particular agency of thepublic-agency database.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein assigning thepost to the first agency based on the location associated with the civicissue comprises comparing the location with information associated withthe civic issues stored in each of the public-agency databases.
 10. Themethod of claim 7, further comprising: calculating a performance scorefor each of the agencies associated with the public-agency databases,the performance score indicating a performance of the agency forresolving civic issues assigned to the agency; and ranking one or moreof the agencies based on the performance scores of the agencies.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the civic-issues platform comprises anissue-tracking database comprising information associated with one ormore posts corresponding to one or more civic issues, respectively, thatare still pending with the civic-issues platform.
 12. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising: retrieving, from the issue-trackingdatabase, one or more feedbacks associated with current statuses of thecivic issue; determining, based at least on the retrieved feedbacks, anumber of distinct entities associated with the online social networkwho validated a resolution of the civic issue; and indicating, if thenumber of distinct entities is above a pre-determined thresholdentities, a status of the civic issue as resolved in the issue-trackingdatabase.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: assigning thefirst user to one or more user-clusters based on the post, eachuser-cluster identifying a plurality of users for targeted advertisingon the online social network; and generating, by an advertiser systemassociated with a third-party advertiser, one or more advertisements forthe first user on the online social network based at least on thedetermined one or more user-clusters assigned to the first user.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, wherein assigning the first user to the one or moreuser-clusters comprises comparing extracted n-grams of the post with oneor more ad-keywords associated with the user-clusters.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the post is updated on a dashboard of the civic-issuesplatform, the dashboard being accessible by a public-agency systemassociated with the first agency.
 16. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving, from a second entity associated with the onlinesocial network in response to the updating of the post, feedbackassociated with the current status of the civic issue.
 17. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the received request to update the post comprises oneor more of: a comment; a video; an image; a reshare; a like; or a spamflag.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the post further comprises oneor more of: the location associated with the civic issue; or auser-reported category corresponding to the civic issue.
 19. One or morecomputer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software thatis operable when executed to: receive, from a client system of a firstuser of an online social network, a post corresponding to a civic issueon a civic-issues platform of the online social network associated witha first municipality, wherein the post comprises a user-generated textcomponent describing the civic issue; parse the user-generated textcomponent of the post describing the civic issue to extract one or moren-grams from the user-generated text component of the post; compare theextracted one or more n-grams with a plurality of sets ofclassification-keywords stored in a public-agency database, each set ofclassification-keywords linked to a respective agency of a plurality ofagencies of the first municipality and being indicative of one or moretypes of work performed by the respective agency, to determine aclassification of the post; assign the post to a first agency of theplurality of agencies of the first municipality based on the determinedclassification of the post and a location associated with the civicissue; receive a request to update the post on the civic-issuesplatform, the request describing a current status of the civic issue,wherein the request is from an entity associated with the firstmunicipality; and update the post on the civic-issues platform toindicate the current status of the civic issue.
 20. A system comprising:one or more processors; and a memory coupled to the processorscomprising instructions executable by the processors, the processorsoperable when executing the instructions to: receive, from a clientsystem of a first user of an online social network, a post correspondingto a civic issue on a civic-issues platform of the online social networkassociated with a first municipality, wherein the post comprises auser-generated text component describing the civic issue; parse theuser-generated text component of the post describing the civic issue toextract one or more n-grams from the user-generated text component ofthe post; compare the extracted one or more n-grams with a plurality ofsets of classification-keywords stored in a public-agency database, eachset of classification-keywords linked to a respective agency of aplurality of agencies of the first municipality and being indicative ofone or more types of work performed by the respective agency, todetermine a classification of the post; assign the post to a firstagency of the plurality of agencies of the first municipality based onthe determined classification of the post and a location associated withthe civic issue; receive a request to update the post on thecivic-issues platform, the request describing a current status of thecivic issue, wherein the request is from an entity associated with thefirst municipality; and update the post on the civic-issues platform toindicate the current status of the civic issue.